Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for
Executive Agencies
[Federal Register: August 20, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 161)]
[Notices]
[Page 45809-45858]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20au99-148]
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_______________________________________________________________________
Part VII
Environmental Protection Agency
_______________________________________________________________________
Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Executive
Agencies; Notice
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OPPTS-00149A; FRL-6095-4]
RIN 2070-AC78
Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for
Executive Agencies
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This document announces the availability of a general guidance
designed to assist Executive agencies in identification and acquisition
of environmentally preferable products and services. The final guidance
is in response to section 503 of Executive Order 13101, entitled
``Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling and
Federal Acquisition'' (63 FR 49641, September 16, 1998), which requires
EPA to issue guidance to address environmentally preferable purchasing
by the Federal government. The guidance is designed to assist Executive
agencies with the implementation of the environmentally preferable
purchasing provisions of Executive Order 13101 and Section 23.704 of
the Federal Acquisition Regulations. The implementation of this
guidance will result in increased purchases by the Federal government
of products and services which minimize harmful effects on human health
and the environment.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information contact: Eun-Sook
Goidel, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Pollution Prevention
Division, 7409, Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW.,
Washington, DC 20460, telephone: (202) 260-3296, fax: (202) 260-0178,
e-mail: goidel.eunsook@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Does this Apply to Me?
You may be potentially affected by this notice if you are an
Executive agency employee responsible for the acquisition and use of
products and services. Those who produce and sell products and services
for use by the Federal government may also find the information in this
notice to be of interest. If you have any questions regarding the
applicability of this notice to a particular organization, consult the
person listed in the ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' section.
II. How Can I Get Additional Information or Copies of this Document
or Other Documents?
For the convenience of the reader, the final guidance is published
below in its entirety in Unit VII.
1. Electronically. You may also obtain electronic copies of this
document and various support documents from the EPA Internet Home Page
at http://www.epa.gov/. On the Home Page select ``Laws and
Regulations'' and then look up the entry for this document under the
``Federal Register--Environmental Documents.'' You can also go directly
to the ``Federal Register'' listings at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/.
Alternatively, you can go to the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
program's website: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp.
2. In person. The Agency has established an official record for
this action under docket control number OPPTS-00149A. The official
record consists of the documents specifically referenced in this
action, any public comments received during an applicable comment
period, and other information related to this action, including any
information claimed as confidential business information (CBI). This
official record includes the documents that are physically located in
the docket, as well as the documents that are referenced in those
documents. The public version of the official record does not include
any information claimed as CBI. The public version of the official
record, which includes printed, paper versions of any electronic
comments submitted during an applicable comment period, is available
for inspection in the TSCA Nonconfidential Information Center, North
East Mall Rm. B-607, Waterside Mall, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC.
The Center is open from noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday,
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Center is (202)
260-7099.
III. Introduction
On September 14, 1998, President Clinton signed Executive Order
13101, entitled ``Greening the Government through Waste Prevention,
Recycling and Federal Acquisition.'' Section 503 of this Executive
Order requires EPA to establish guidance to ``address environmentally
preferable purchasing.''
The guidance that is being made available today is designed to help
Executive agencies meet their obligations under Executive Order 13101
to identify and purchase environmentally preferable products and
services. ``Environmentally preferable'' is defined in section 201 of
the Executive Order to mean products or services that have a ``lesser
or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared
with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.'' The
guidance is intended to draw on the extensive procurement experience of
the Executive agencies and on the environmental expertise of EPA and
others both within and outside of the government. It provides a broad
decision-making framework for environmentally preferable purchasing and
is a first step to help Executive agencies systematically integrate
environmental preferability into the Federal government's buying
decisions.
IV. Background
This Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing is
based on EPA's September 1995 Proposed Guidance on the Acquisition of
Environmentally Preferable Products and Service and the comments
received on that proposal. EPA announced the availability of and sought
comment on the Proposed Guidance on the Acquisition of Environmentally
Preferable Products and Service on September 29, 1995 (60 FR 50721)
(FRL-4760-5). The process EPA used to develop the proposed guidance is
described in that Federal Register notice. In addition, lessons and
insights from early pilot projects have guided the development of the
Final Guidance.
Since 1995, a variety of things have occurred that will directly
affect the Federal government's environmentally preferable purchasing
practices. Foremost are the 1997 revisions to the Federal Acquisition
Regulations that incorporate policies for the acquisition of
environmentally preferable and energy-efficient products and services.
These changes require the consideration of environmental factors in all
aspects of Federal acquisition, including acquisition planning (part
7), conducting market surveys (part 10), describing an agency's needs
(part 11), evaluating and selecting a vendor (parts 14 and 15), and
contract administration (part 42), as well as other provisions.
Another milestone is the 1996 enactment of the National Technology
Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA) which requires the Federal
government to use consensus-based industry standards when available
rather than creating a government-unique standard.
The acquisition streamlining reform initiatives have also brought
many changes to the way the Federal government purchases products and
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services. One example is increased decentralization of the purchasing
decision, best exemplified by the meteoric increase in credit card use
by Federal agency personnel. The number of card holders increased from
10,000 in 1989 to 250,000 in 1996 with the dollar volume increasing
from $460,000 to close to $3 billion during the same time period. This
trend highlights the importance of reaching out to those beyond the
acquisition community with the environmentally preferable purchasing
message.
Another trend is the increased interest at all levels of
government--local, state and foreign--in using the government's
purchasing power as a policy tool to drive environmental improvement.
This trend will likely accelerate the anticipated spill-over effect of
environmentally preferable purchasing practices. Beyond the
governments' interest, other large institutional purchasers--non-
profits and individual companies--are also beginning to include
environmental factors in their buying decisions.
V. Lessions Learned
In the years since the Proposed Guidance was first issued, a number
of pilot projects were initiated to demonstrate how EPA's Proposed
Guidance could be applied to specific product categories. Though
limited in number, these projects have provided important insights into
the development of the Final Guidance as well as the direction of EPA's
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program.
First, it is important to have the participation of both the
environmental and the acquisition/procurement personnel. The
acquisition of environmentally preferable products and services in the
Federal government context involves both defining what is
environmentally preferable for a given product or service and ensuring
that the procurement process encourages the purchases of these
products. Innovative approaches that leverage the expertise of the
environmental and procurement experts is essential to accomplishing
these tasks and institutionalizing environmentally preferable
purchasing practices.
Second, on a very positive note, early pilots have shown that
vendors understand that providing a broad range of environmental
information is an important part of doing business with the government
and that it can serve as a competitive advantage. Generally speaking,
however, information about environmental performance of products and
services, particularly along the various life cycle stages, and easy-
to-use tools to assess environmental performance remain scarce,
limiting the wide-spread adoption of environmentally preferable
purchasing. This is likely to change as Executive agencies begin to
implement the changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations and as
agencies begin to use information and technical expertise of non-
governmental entities.
Lastly, early pilots indicate that there is not a single, ``one
size fits all,'' approach to incorporate environmental preferability
into Federal acquisition. Using common sense, we need to tailor our
approach and level of analysis to fit the complexity of the product and
service categories being purchased.
Much progress has been made since Executive Order 12873 was issued
in October 1993. A number of pilot projects have been implemented by
key purchasing agencies that have provided valuable insights and
lessons on ways to integrate environmental considerations into the
Federal procurement process. These pilots have helped to identify gaps
in information and tools. Future pilots will be instrumental in guiding
both EPA's and other Executive agencies' efforts in environmentally
preferable purchasing. As EPA and the other agencies move forward, the
debate about the appropriate approaches and goals will likely continue.
This is desirable given the dynamic nature of the issue. Based on
feedback from all stakeholders, EPA will continue to test a variety of
approaches and develop and refine tools to allow agencies to more
readily apply the concepts of environmental preferability in government
purchasing decisions.
VI. Major Changes to the Guidance
This section describes some of the key changes made to the 1995
Proposed Guidance. EPA has also prepared a more detailed Response to
Comment document, which has been included in the public record for this
guidance.
A. Guidance Framework
The Guidance framework remains largely unchanged and includes an
introduction (Section I), intended audience (Section II), approach
(Section III), a set of guiding principles (Section IV), suggested
steps for Executive agency implementation (Section V), and appendices
(Section VII). A new section, Section VI, lists available resources and
tools related to environmentally preferable purchasing.
B. Guiding Principles
A number of changes have been made to the guiding principles,
including the addition of a new principle and the merging of a number
of principles. As a result, the Final Guidance now has five, rather
than seven, guiding principles. Taken together, the principles are
intended to provide a broad guide to help Executive agency purchasers
address environmental preferability in acquisition of products and
services. Specifically, the following changes have been made:
1. A new principle on product safety, price, environmental
considerations, performance and availability has been added as
Principle #1 and reads:
Environmental considerations should become part of normal
purchasing practice consistent with such traditional factors as
product safety, price, performance, and availability.
This was in response to a number of comments requesting more
emphasis be placed on the point that the addition of environment is not
in lieu of traditional purchasing factors. Although the original
proposal noted this, the addition of this new principle should send a
clearer message on the importance of putting environmental
considerations in the context of other purchasing factors.
2. The guiding principles on life cycle and multiple attributes
have been collapsed into one principle (Principle #3) and reads:
A product's or service's environmental preferability is a
function of multiple attributes from a life cycle perspective.
This change is based on comments and also EPA's strong belief that
the two concepts are integral in determining environmental
preferability. The discussion that follows the guiding principle has
also been modified to reflect that although the determination of
environmental preferability should be based on multiple attributes, the
purchasing decision may at times be based on a single attribute.
3. The guiding principles on impacts and local conditions have been
modified and collapsed into one principle (Principle #4) and reads:
Determining environmental preferability may involve comparing
environmental impacts. In comparing environmental impacts, Federal
agencies should consider: the reversibility and geographic scale of
the environmental impacts, the degree of difference among competing
products or services, and the overriding importance of protecting
human health.
This change was made to remove the perceived conflict between the
two original principles and to provide purchasers with more guidance on
how to assess relative impacts. The original principles were intended
to convey that, in general, global and irreversible
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environmental impacts should be given greater weight in determining
preferability than local and rapidly reversible environmental impacts.
However, we also recognize that there may be situations in which there
are unique mitigating circumstances locally, and in those cases, the
purchaser can make the judgement that the local conditions and impacts
should be given priority.
4. The principles on competition and product attribute have been
revised and a new principle (Principle #5) on environmental information
has been added. It reads:
Comprehensive, accurate and meaningful information about the
environmental performance of products or services is necessary in
order to determine environmental preferability.
This revision was based on lessons from the pilots and reflects the
importance of having relevant environmental information for determining
environmental preferability. The discussion related to competition
which originally appeared under guiding Principle #6 is now captured
under guiding Principle #1.
C. Federal Agency Implementation
A number of changes have been made to facilitate Executive agency
implementation of environmentally preferable purchasing, including:
1. EPA recommends that Executive agencies look to EPA's list of the
top 20 prioritized product categories to focus their pilot projects.
The description of this list is included in Section VI of the Final
Guidance and the complete list is available on EPA's Environmentally
Preferable Purchasing Program's website: www.epa.gov/opptintr. The
prioritized list was developed pursuant to Section 503(a) of Executive
Order 13101 which states that EPA's guidance ``should be. . .targeted
towards products and services that have the most effect.''
2. In implementing pilot projects, EPA recommends, pursuant to
section 503(b)(2) of Executive Order 13101, that agencies use all of
the options available to determine environmentally preferable
attributes of products and services in pilot projects, including the
use of technical expertise of non-governmental entities such as
labeling, certification, or standards developing organizations.
Additional guidance on the use of these organizations is elaborated in
the Office of Federal Environmental Executive and EPA's April 1998
policy letter. The full text of this policy letter has been added as
Appendix E.
3. EPA recommends that agencies document their pilot efforts. In
order to facilitate this, the Final Guidance includes a sample case
study template (Appendix E).
D. Appendices
A number of changes have been made to this section, including:
1. The addition of three new items:
i. Sample Policy Directive (Appendix C).
ii. Full Text of April 1998 Policy Letter on Non-governmental
Entities (Appendix D).
iii. Sample Case Study Template (Appendix E).
2. The deletion of the original Appendix D, ``A Summary of the
Federal Trade Commission's Guides to the Use of Environmental Marketing
Claims.'' The Guides were updated in May 1998 and the information on
how to access the most recent Guides is now included in Section VI--
Resources.
VII. Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for
Executive Agencies
For the convenience of the reader, the final guidance is published
below in its entirety.
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List of Subjects
Environmental protection.
Dated: August 13, 1999.
Carol M. Browner,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 99-21664 Filed 8-19-99; 8:45 am]
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